After a long hiatus (busy with family, work, and other projects), I'm trying something new with the website. So far, it's a straight port of the old data, but I hope with this new system, I'll be able to update more easily in the future. But more on that later...

Model Kit is a set of calculation tools designed for scale model builders, model-railroad enthusiasts, scratch-builders, or anyone else who needs to quickly and easily convert between measurements in different scales, figure out the scale of a model or model part, or perform other modeling-related calculations.

Model Kit for iPhone® and iPod touch® is available on the App Store℠ for only 99¢ (US).

The Shooting Star is a near-future, orbital, or supra-orbital fighter that I designed with a goal of realism. There are a lot of elements that make this a distinctive design. The first of which is that I've eschewed the primary tropes of Sci-fi space fighters.

There's no canopy, no streamlining, no wings, no "hyperdrive", and very limited armament. The only two concessions to SF convention I chose to make in the design are a small-scale fusion reactor for power, and the very notion of the reasonablility of a small-scale space-fighter in the first place. In fact, as I was designing this craft, the first problem I decided to solve was the logistics of how a fighter would be transported between engagements.

This is one of those projects that has spent a long, long time in an incomplete state. Coming home from Wonderfest last year inspired me to finish this and several other models. Of course, here it is, March, and I'm just finishing up the one. Par for the course I guess. I've got another one coming along that sort of goes together with this one, but I'm not sure if it will finish in time for the contest.